In her autobiography St. Teresa of Avila refers to The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Francisco de Osuna, an obscure spiritual classic that profoundly influenced her life to such a degree that she alluded to it as “her master.” The great lesson that most benefitted St. Teresa was the book’s teaching on the virtue of gratitude owed to God for his many gifts, graces, and blessings in the course of a lifetime. Comparing God’s blessings to a fountain of water that continues to overflow, de Osuna explains that the stream continues on its course so long as man acknowledges his debt to God with unceasing gratitude and praise. Rapid water that always moves with force energizes with life-giving power bringing health and quenching thirst whereas stagnant pools and marshes breed fetid odors associated with disease. The fountain of God’s grace always remains in motion so long as man expresses thanksgiving for the gifts of God’s bountiful generosity. Just as streams and rivers travel toward the sea, God directs his graces to man, but this motion depends on man’s appreciation of God’s love that shows in the form of gratitude for all of God’s gifts, small and large. The river of God’s graces does not continuously flow without man’s cooperation and response.
The beginning of every day gives occasion for thanksgiving for the gift of life and all that the dawn promises—a beautiful day, the food on the table, the blessing of a family, good health, the joy of work, the companionship of good friends, and the opportunity to enjoy favorite pastimes. A gesture of kindness, gracious acts of courtesy, special deeds of thoughtfulness, and the pleasures of intelligent and mirthful conversation that can bless any day deserve recognition as God-sent favors to nourish the heart and spirit. The many forms of love a person receives in the course of a day from a devoted spouse to the affection of children to the hospitality of neighbors to the charity of strangers come in both expected and expected ways to remind man of God’s presence and providence in daily life. A beautiful piece of music, a book rich in wisdom, and the participation in a favorite recreation fill the day with a heavenly pleasure. An ordinary day is never devoid of God’s graces that follow one another like the rush of water flowing from an abundant source.
The special occasions and festive events of the year also inspire gratitude. The birth of a child, a family member’s birthday, news of an engagement, a wedding anniversary, a graduation from school or college, the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, and the sacramental life of the Church all bring many forms of joy in the course of the year. The social life a person experiences in its many forms from belonging to a family to enjoying a circle of friends to participating in the life of an organization or church all enrich a person’s life and make it abundant. All the sacraments bring blessings to the souls of each person as the channels of God’s graces flow through them as constant evidence of God’s love and care for all man’s spiritual needs. The Christian always looks forward to the next chapters of life and knows that the Lord is a God of surprises whose love is always new, creative, and fresh. When a prayer is answered and a dream comes true—often beyond one’s wildest hopes or expectations—God deserves the glory. In Augustine’s words, “You love us, Lord, as if we were the only one.”
The gift of a mind and the joy of learning never cease to evoke appreciation. To learn a trade or new skill, to master the art of cooking, to advance in one’s chosen course of study, to experience the growth of the mind from a great book or spiritual classic, to grow in Christian perfection and sanctity, or to gain wisdom from experienced elders always brings special satisfaction and moves the heart to gratitude. To know that man is, in the words of St. Thomas, “capax universi” (capable of understanding universal truths) and to realize that, in Aristotle’s word, “the soul is all that is” is a great cause for wonder at God’s special endowments to man. To know that man is an image of God, possesses a divine life, owns an immortal soul, and is destined for everlasting life turns the mind once again to the goodness of God’s infinite love. The gift of intelligence leads man to wonder at the transcendentals of truth, goodness, and beauty— attributes of God reflected in creation—that never diminish because their source is inexhaustible in its fullness. The joy that the Muses and the arts bring to the human spirit by way of the beauty of music, painting, poetry, and drama also come as precious gifts from God to make life uplifted and abundant.
The rich variety and copious abundance that fill creation lift the heart to thank God for the wealth of goodness and beauty that abounds in Nature. The Psalmist sings, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the heavens declare His handiwork” and “My cup overflows.” The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in “Pied Beauty” marvels at the splendor of color in the sky (“for skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow”), on earth (“Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plow”) , and in the water (“For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim”). The child in Robert L. Stevenson’s “Happy Thought” revels in the kingdom of play and compares himself to a sovereign in his magnificence: “The world is so filled with a number of things, / I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” God’s generosity is unlimited and unsparing in providing man with a treasury of delights for pure enjoyment.
If a person examines his life with the perspective of seeing it in retrospect, he can detect a plan and a design that shows the hand of divine providence and see the crossing of paths and meeting of certain people as sources of grace. To meet someone accidentally at a party, wedding, school, work, or church whom one later marries; to form a friendship with someone who shares his love for favorite recreations or hobbies and offers his knowledge and wisdom to introduce others to these joys he gladly shares; to study under an inspiring teacher who stirs the soul and awakens a great love for a subject that often leads to a career; to encounter a family who love and live their Christian faith, model a holy marriage, and raise happy children who receive all the loving care of both parents—these are grace-filled moments in which God uses persons as sources of grace to one another in much the same way St. Augustine attributed his conversion to the prayers of his mother St. Monica, to noble friends who loved the truth and sought wisdom with a pure heart, and to St. Ambrose whose eloquence in preaching the simple truth of the Gospel moved him more than all the schools of rhetoric.
Man’s debts of gratitude to God for all his abundant gifts of mind, body, and soul; for the multiple ways His Divine Providence orders each person’s life to satisfy the deepest desires of the heart; for the infinite variety of the pleasures and joys God prepares for man’s happiness and joy through all the stages of life; and for the many surprises, strokes of good fortune, or miracles in which God brings good out of evil and joy out of sorrow in a person’s life–all awaken a sense of unrepayable indebtedness that only constant, daily thanksgiving can humbly acknowledge with an appreciative heart that never forgets the author of these good gifts and remembers that God is love and will not be outdone in generosity. To be grateful is to remember the words of St. Paul: “What have you that you did not receive?” To be grateful is to be like the leper who was healed and remembered to return thanks and not like the nine who presumed to take God’s gifts for granted: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise except this foreigner?” God who is just expects man to render thanks as the human expression of justice and as the human response to God’s grace.
Mitchell Kalpakgian, Ph.D. has completed fifty years of teaching beginning as a teaching assistant at the University of Kansas, continuing as a professor of English at Simpson College in Iowa for thirty-one years, and recently teaching part-time at various schools and college in New Hampshire. As well as contributing to a number of publications, he has published seven books: The Marvelous in Fielding’s Novels, The Mysteries of Life in Children’s Literature, The Lost Arts of Modern Civilization, An Armenian Family Reunion (a collection of short stories), Modern Manners: The Poetry of Conduct and The Virtue of Civility, and The Virtues We Need Again. He has designed homeschooling literature courses for Seton Home School, and he also teaches online courses for Queen of Heaven Academy and part-time for Northeast Catholic College.
